Today's electronic commerce systems and methods now have the capacity to pair consumers with products that may be located in virtually every corner of the globe. Consumers may now visit an online marketplace to order one or more items (e.g., goods, products, services, information or media of any type or form) from nearly any location on the planet, and have the items delivered to their doorsteps. Once a source for the one or more items has been identified, and an order of the items has been confirmed, the items will be delivered from the source to the customer in one or more intermodal segments, such as in the air, on land and sea.
Many items that may be ordered online require particular handling conditions during storage or transit. For example, containers that are used to store or deliver delicate items or items that must remain in a particular orientation are often marked with static labels such as “FRAGILE” or “THIS END UP,” respectively. Such labels or markings notify handlers of the containers that the items may be damaged or destroyed if particular handling conditions, such as a maximum amount or extent of vibration, or a specific alignment or orientation, are not maintained.
The risk of damaging items in storage or in transit is particularly acute for perishable goods, many of which will degrade in quality if certain handling conditions are not maintained. For example, many fruits and vegetables (such as mangoes) will develop bruises or discoloration if they are not rotated from time to time, and many food products that contain solutions, colloids or suspensions should also be occasionally rotated. Similarly, even when such an item is stationary, changing a particular environmental condition of the item while it is stored in a warehouse or other storage facility may extend the item's shelf life and maintain its quality until the item is ultimately delivered to its final destination.
However, existing systems and methods for advising handlers as to preferred or mandatory environmental conditions for items in storage or in transit, including labels such as “FRAGILE” or “THIS END UP,” are insufficient in situations in which such environmental conditions may change from time to time.
Therefore, systems and methods for determining preferred or essential environmental conditions of items in storage or in transit, monitoring the conditions of such items, and changing the conditions of such items as needed may be particularly beneficial when integrated with existing systems and methods for storing or shipping items.